Decentralized Applications: The Blockchain-Empowered Software System

TLDR

Blockchain technology has attracted attention in academia and capital markets, yet speculation over thousands of cryptocurrencies and ICO scams has sparked controversy. The paper surveys state‑of‑the‑art dApps and traces blockchain development to highlight the importance of dApps and future blockchain value, providing readers with an overview of dApp research and recent developments. The authors analyze blockchain development directions to meet desirable dApp characteristics by surveying current dApp implementations.

Abstract

Blockchain technology has attracted tremendous attention in both academia and capital market. However, overwhelming speculations on thousands of available cryptocurrencies and numerous initial coin offering scams have also brought notorious debates on this emerging technology. This paper traces the development of blockchain systems to reveal the importance of decentralized applications (dApps) and the future value of blockchain. We survey the state-of-the-art dApps and discuss the direction of blockchain development to fulfill the desirable characteristics of dApps. The readers will gain an overview of dApp research and get familiar with recent developments in the blockchain.